at the intersection of philosophy, technology and business

Holding Business Back

Two gems from the Harvard Business Review blog:

Tackling the innovator’s (or maybe just the winner’s) dilemma by building a second corporation. Of course you have a problem of balancing incentives here. First, you must keep the second business nimble and unlikely to chase dead ends too long (a sort of moral hazard for individuals who end up personally invested in the success of duds because if they don’t succeed, they know they will lose funding). Second, you want to avoid making joining the “innovation” corporation too risky – otherwise everyone will want to stay in the cash cow business. Especially if you have a golden handcuffs retention strategy.